Victoria Concordia Crescit

Since Arsenal unveiled their initial badge in 1888, it has gone through multiple redesigns and changes into the current design that we are all familiar with today. The original badge was based on the Woolwich Coat of Arms as this is where the club was originally based. Although the club moved to Highbury in 1913, they still opted to embrace their ‘Woolwich Arsenal’ legacy and keep the cannons on their crest. There have multiple changes to the position and size of the cannon on the badge over the years, but it has always been a prominent feature of every badge.

It wasn’t until 1949 when a new badge was unveiled with the infamous “Victoria Concordia Crescit” motto. Over the next 53 years the crest remained largely unchanged, the biggest change being the colouring of the badge. At the start of the 21st century, the club was forced to change the badge. Due to the numerous revisions that were made to the badge over the past half-century, Arsenal were unable to copyright it as well as the Latin motto. With the move to the Emirates Stadium on the horizon, the club opted to introduce a new modern crest. Many of the features of the previous crest were completely removed such as the Islington coat of arms and the “Victoria Concordia Crescit” motto.

The radical redesign of the badge wasn’t well received by the fans, claiming that it ignored most of the club’s history and tradition. Despite the backlash, the badge has been in use since 2002 and is one of the more recognisable badges for fans of football who watch the game or regularly visit football odds betting sites.

Although the current badge doesn’t feature the “Victoria Concordia Crescit” motto, there are still some clubs which have still kept Latin mottos on their badge. The only Premier League club which still has their motto on the badge is Everton. The motto was controversially removed at the start of the 2013/14 season, but it was immediately reinstated the following season due to the criticism they received from the fans. The Everton badge might be the only badge in the Premier League which features a Latin motto, but are other clubs in other leagues which still feature Latin mottos on their crests. Can you figure out which clubs have incorporated Latin mottos on their crests? Give this quiz a try and see how well you do.